Melissa McCarthy Takes Journalists to Task as Sean Spicer on ‘SNL’

She's here to swallow gum and take names.

If you only watch one “Saturday Night Live” clip this week — or month, or year — make it this one. Melissa McCarthy showed up to play Sean Spicer last night, and her impersonation of the gum-swallowing, misinformation-spewing press secretary was her finest work in years (if not ever).

First there’s the delayed reaction from the crowd — it takes everyone in attendance a few moments to realize who’s playing Spicer, at which point they all burst into applause. Then there’s the inherently funny visual of McCarthy dressed up as the man who, on his first day on the job, wrongly declared that January 20 saw the “largest audience to ever to witness an inauguration, period.” Then there are such hilarious, angry lines as “I’m here to swallow gum and I’m here to take names” and “Let me wave something shiny in front of you monkeys.”

The open contempt McCarthy’s Spicer displays for the press — namely Glenn Thrush of the New York Times and a CNN reporter who’s literally in a cage — is only slightly more exaggerated than the actual Spicer’s, which would be even funnier if it weren’t so frightening. Watch the full skit below.